Kirk McKeand's Reviews
Video game narratives can be great, but nothing will surpass the stories we create in collaboration with a game – emergent, unscripted moments that pop up unplanned and create lasting impressions, and that's where Mankind Divided excels.
It may have problems, but Final Fantasy XV is bursting with personality and it's hard to dislike. Like any true friend, you'll learn to love it despite its flaws.
Those golden-era JRPGs are beloved because they were packed with memorable locations, characters, and combat. I Am Setsuna unfortunately falls short on all three counts, and instead delivers an average and forgettable adventure, albeit one with wonderful music.
Overwatch is a first-person shooter that oozes personality and charm, but beyond that surface layer lies a deep, tactical game where your most powerful weapon is your brain. If, like me, you've recently fallen out of love with online first-person shooters, play Overwatch long enough for it to deliver one of its many standout moments and you'll be renewing your vows in no time.
Ratchet & Clank stands on its own merits, never relying on fond memories of the 2002 PlayStation 2 original beyond knowing gags. You might be tired of being asked to buy the same game twice, or perhaps you've been burned before by a low-quality movie tie-in, but don't let that put you off, as this is one of the best console exclusives this generation.
Dark Souls is a series about pushing through the unknown, pressing forward with your shield raised, probing the darkness, and looking for the flicker of the next bonfire. When the fire is lit, the previous area loses its mystique. It is conquered. This same sense of familiarity permeates Dark Souls 3, and it only ever gets you out of your comfort zone by resorting to cheap tricks. Yet despite this, it's still a beautifully bleak adventure with one of the best combat systems in videogames - it just falls short of the magic of the original. Like the opening cutscene says: the fire fades.
This collapse caused various factions of armed looters, rioters, murderers and thieves to pop up all over the city - along with stray dogs and scurrying rats - patrolling the snowy, litter-filled streets and killing indiscriminately, taking whatever they want. Fortunately, the government had set up an armed militia of cover-hugging sleeper cell agents, and they're sent in to restore order by... patrolling the streets and killing indiscriminately, taking whatever they want.
If the rest of the episodes match the quality on offer in Hitman's Paris debut, this could end up being the definitive Hitman game, its first big level already cementing itself as one of our favourite Hitman missions of all time. We can't wait for our next hit.
As much as this is a miniseries spinoff for Telltale's TWD series, this is also a spinoff chapter in the life of Michonne. It's inconsequential. Nothing that happens here can impact this established character in any meaningful way, so Telltale has to work from a template.
A truly remarkable strategy game
It's a likeable game, and it feels fantastic to play when you nail an extended combat encounter with a chain of flawless shots, deflections, rolls, slides and aerial skull punches. It can be a touch imprecise, especially when trying to time a shot while rolling or throwing an explosive, but sometimes your failures can be just as entertaining as an unbroken display of acrobatic death.
This tight, finely tuned experience might not be treading the same ground as classic Rainbow Six - and the lack of any substantial singe-player is unfortunate - but taken on its own merits, it's easily one of the best shooters of the year, and the best online experience we've had in quite some time.
When you liberate an enemy stronghold Rico sometimes says, "That was fun - let's do it again." This feels like a perfect summary for the game: it is 15 minutes of stupid fun on repeat. But that barely matters when you are firing remote-detonated cows at a military compound filled with the red stuff.
If you've been waiting for Fallout 4, it will simultaneously meet your expectations and exceed them in others. Who would have thought a Fallout game would convince us of Bethesda's storytelling and shooter credentials? In a year full of brilliant open-world games like The Witcher 3, it manages to stand apart from the crowd and deliver something that feels fresh, despite its familiar foundations.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate provides a fantastic facsimile of Victorian London, but clumsy controls and tedious missions spoil the fun.
If you do happen to own a PC capable of running the original Dishonored on max settings, this port is difficult to recommend, however. I still class it among the best games of the last generation and believe everyone should play it, but this just isn't much of a remaster.
Super Mario Maker already has so much potential, but its true brilliance will only be apparent once it's out and it starts to create prodigies. Whether Super Mario Maker is a gateway to infinite Mario levels or an outlet for your creativity, you will still find unlimited value within. If Mario means anything to you, this is absolutely essential.
Devil's Third will probably gain a cult following because it's a game from Itagaki, but it's nowhere near the quality of some of his earlier work.
Perhaps MGSV's best quality is how in pulling gameplay to the foreground and letting much of the exposition remain optional, it opens it up to be enjoyed by people who have in the past been put off by its weirdness, serving as both the perfect entry point and a satisfying conclusion. MGSV takes the best of a great series and creates a series' best in the process.
And that's what it feels like to play Godzilla - you're a man in a giant suit, blindly bumbling around a fake cardboard city, swinging your arms and trying not to pass out - not because you're exhausted, but because you're bored out of your mind.